A new sculpture created by the Fenton community will soon be flying over the downtown area.

Fenton Mayor Sue Osborn called it “beautiful” and Downtown Development Authority chairman Craig Schmidt said it went miles beyond what it should have. Those were some of the reactions after the Fenton Arts Council revealed and presented a 5 foot high butterfly sculpture made by community members to the DDA at their meeting last week. Schmidt said the council came to them and asked for $3,000 in funding for the project that would include a lot of the children in the community and give them their first look at art. Arts Council member Sally Bright headed the project, which started 10 months ago, and said she was continuously amazed throughout the year at the developments she witnessed. In the beginning she had hoped for 50 people to lend a hand. In the end, her list of contributors had grown to 126 children, adults, and businesses.

Much of the work on the butterfly was done by kids, from elementary schoolers weaving copper wire to middle school students and teenagers doing the soldering. The “body” of the butterfly was made so that it could ultimately rest on top of a flag pole. Many in the DDA along the Arts Council expressed a desire to see it end up at the millpond, behind the city council building. Schmidt thought that the way it could potentially catch sunlight off of the colorful wings could really turn it into something special. (MK)